How To Face What You’ve Been Running From To HEAL & THRIVE

SUMMIT OF GREATNESS IS DAYS AWAY! Have you gotten your tickets yet? Get them before they sell out at lewishowes.com/tickets. I'm thrilled to welcome back my friend and neighbor, the incredible Rachel Platten, for her third appearance on The School of Greatness! Rachel opens up about her intense journey over the past few years - from hitting rock bottom with postpartum depression and chronic pain to finding a profound spiritual connection that transformed her life and music. We dive deep into her creative process, discuss the challenges of balancing motherhood with a music career, and explore how she's learned to love herself through it all. Rachel's vulnerability and wisdom shine through as she shares powerful insights on healing, spirituality, and making art from pain. This conversation is a must-listen for anyone seeking inspiration to overcome struggles and reconnect with their purpose. Listen to Rachel's new album "I am Rachel Platten" today! In this episode you will learnHow Rachel overcame severe postpartum depression and chronic pain through spiritual connectionThe power of radical acceptance in healing and personal growthTechniques for managing intense emotions and anxiety without suppressing themWhy creating art from pain can be transformative for both the artist and audienceHow to balance motherhood with a demanding creative careerThe importance of self-love and acceptance in achieving true successRachel's approach to connecting directly with God/universal love for guidanceFor more information go to www.lewishowes.com/1663For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:Eckhart Tolle – https://link.chtbl.com/1463-podRhonda Byrne – https://link.chtbl.com/1525-podJohn Maxwell – https://link.chtbl.com/1501-pod Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Rachel Platten?

  I was bottling it up. And that's where the spiritual bypass comes in and is dangerous. I had learned this positive psychology of think good thoughts, manifest things, don't stay in the darkness because then I won't be able to manifest the good stuff and I'll just manifest more bad stuff. I think that that's really unhealthy. I wish more people talked about it and understood it from someone who's really suffered with their mental health. No matter how much love you receive, it's never going to be enough if you're not finding it within.

• 0:24Speaker 01

  Rachel Platten is here to the international singing star and the songwriting sensation, Rachel Platten.

• 0:33Rachel Platten?

  I was at the lowest I've ever been in my life. I was terrified. I didn't know how to keep going. I screamed on the floor of my studio, mercy, mercy, I'm done. Little by little, I looked at the dark, I turned them into songs, I transmuted my pain into art. I felt a presence that I never felt in my life. And I've always written with something, but I didn't know what it was that was flowing through me. And that night, I knew without a doubt that that beautiful piece of art came through that pain. There had to be something bigger than me in this world. You just need one little light to light up the dark, right?

• 1:04Lewis Howes?

  What would you say to your younger self on how to heal with the wisdom you have now?

• 1:09Rachel Platten?

  I just wrote myself a letter.

• 1:15Speaker 01

  It's been so amazing.

• 1:17Lewis Howes?

  Last year was just a transformative, life-changing event. Team Greatness is great. My name is Lewis Howes. Thanks so much for being here. And before we dive into this special video today, I want to remind you about the Summit of Greatness, our annual conference happening this September in Los Angeles. With David Goggins, Dr. Joe Dispenza, and many more incredible speakers and performers, there will be so many live attendees there that you can meet with, you can network with, and you can help transform your life. Make sure to click the link in the description to get your tickets, and I can't wait to see you at the Summit of Greatness here in Los Angeles.

• 1:59Lewis Howes?

  Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness. Very excited about our guest. We have the inspiring Rachel Platten in the house. Welcome, my neighbor, my friend, to the Foundation of Greatness. This is the basement. This is the home HQ where we're doing the School of Greatness. And it's so good to see you here. So thanks for being here. We are neighbors, for people that don't know, which is, for me, one of my favorite things when I moved into this home, knowing that, I didn't know you lived in the neighborhood, but now I saw you walking around one day and I was like, "Do you live here?" And you're like, "Yeah, I live right here." I was like, "No way."

• 2:33Rachel Platten?

  Across the street.

• 2:34Lewis Howes?

  It's incredible. So I'm so grateful. Every time I leave my home, I know that you're there. I feel peace and harmony. So.

• 2:39Rachel Platten?

  I feel the same way.

• 2:40Lewis Howes?

  Feels good.

• 2:41Rachel Platten?

  Me too.

• 2:41Lewis Howes?

  It's good. Welcome here. You've been on the show twice now. So it's your third time, I think, right?

• 2:45Rachel Platten?

  Yeah. But do I beat anyone? Am I like the most time?

• 2:47Lewis Howes?

  We've had some more people on, I think, a few more times. But three's a lot.

• 2:50Rachel Platten?

  I mean, it's pretty good.

• 2:52Lewis Howes?

  If you come back a second time, that's a big deal. If you come back a third time, maybe only like 10 people have been on three times. So it's a big deal. You're here.

• 2:59Rachel Platten?

  I forced my way on.

• 3:00Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, right now. No, I'm here to support. There's a lot that's happened since I met you, probably when? 2018, 2019?

• 3:07Rachel Platten?

  It was earlier than that.

• 3:08Lewis Howes?

  Was it?

• 3:08Rachel Platten?

  I really think, I think it was like closer to 2016.

• 3:11Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 3:11Rachel Platten?

  Yeah. Cause it was right when Fight Song was before my second record. Yeah.

• 3:15Lewis Howes?

  Interesting. Okay.

• 3:16Rachel Platten?

  Yeah. Right?

• 3:17Lewis Howes?

  And, yeah, we, we, we connected back then. So it's probably been like eight years, right?

• 3:21Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 3:21Lewis Howes?

  So, and I've watched you through the journey of the last eight years. You know, we go on walks sometimes. I hear about the stuff you've been on in the last even two years, the last six months even. And there's a lot that's happened in your life. A lot's happened in your career, your health, family, all these different things. And I want to talk about how you've been able to manage it all. From essentially driving in a van, you know, for almost a decade around the country, performing your songs, to small audiences, you know, five, 10, 30 people at a time sometimes.

• 3:56Rachel Platten?

  Living rooms.

• 3:57Lewis Howes?

  Living rooms and living out of a van essentially some nights, to then having the number one song in the world with Fight Song in 2016, around then. To then, you know, starting a family and kind of taking some time off from music, not fully, but not driving the music career at the highest level. And not being, let's say, at number one peak position, relevance, as you were with Fight Song for a few years, and now trying to come back through a whole healing journey. And even last year alone, you know, you were struggling. We've gone on some long walks together and you were like emotionally struggling.

• 4:37Rachel Platten?

  Really was.

• 4:38Lewis Howes?

  You were trying to figure out kind of meaning, purpose, you know? What am I doing? Should I watch more music? All these different things.

• 4:45Rachel Platten?

  Am I okay? Yeah.

• 4:46Lewis Howes?

  Postpartum stuff with, with kids.

• 4:50Lewis Howes?

  So my first question is, how are you doing?

• 4:54Rachel Platten?

  Man, hearing it all reflected from someone that knows you and sees you is really wild because I'm just living, you know, in my own mind, in my own body and experiencing it through my own eyes, but hearing it all, it's wild. If you were telling me that story and I was listening to a podcast and that was the setup for like someone you were about to interview, I'd be like, yeah, how the heck is she doing? I'm doing well. I really am doing well and I, I'm really happy right now. I'm tired and I'm a little overwhelmed, but I'm really happy.

• 5:23Lewis Howes?

  What are you wrong with?

• 5:24Rachel Platten?

  Really proud of where I'm at. I feel really strong and I feel really energized and I feel really on purpose again. And I feel really supported and loved and I feel okay, you know? I feel like, and it's a miracle. I did not know on those walks that we took on those long nights of insomnia and that we can get into all that, I did not know that I would ever be able to be back here. So I'm really proud.

• 5:50Lewis Howes?

  What does back here mean? Back here like?

• 5:52Rachel Platten?

  About to release a record, you know, of doing this again. Like it's wild. I'm putting out a body of work in three weeks or I don't know when this will come out, but September 3rd. And it is my favorite thing I've ever created. I really feel like it's the first proper introduction of me to the world. And I am incredibly proud to be here again, you know, to be like healthy enough to put myself out there and be vulnerable and and balance it enough with my kids who are very little. And, you know, I'm just, I love who I've become.

• 6:26Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 6:27Rachel Platten?

  I'm really proud. This joy that I feel is earned. You know, it's it's not an untested joy. It's an earned, earned confidence. And I have found these tools that are amazing. And I've learned how to support myself and give myself what I was always looking outside for. So I feel ready.

• 6:48Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Speaking of tools, I know I've heard you talk in a in a recent interview about how being in L.A. a lot of people spiritually bypass their feelings and they just lean right into positivity, positivity, only think good thoughts, you know?

• 7:02Rachel Platten?

  Yeah, I did that for years.

• 7:04Lewis Howes?

  What were the tools that supported you from feeling your feelings without getting caught and depressed in them?

• 7:11Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 7:11Lewis Howes?

  And and also not just spiritually bypassing, but being able to get to a healthy place in your mind and in your body at the same time?

• 7:20Rachel Platten?

  Yeah, it's such a good question. I mean, it was probably the most important thing I've learned because as an artist, as a songwriter, my emotional range is humongous. As a mother, a new mother, already that range has expanded. So I'm a songwriting new mom. I mean, it's a mess.

• 7:38Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 7:39Rachel Platten?

  In there. And I had to learn how to allow it all and how to work with it and love myself through all of it. And it's as I teach my daughters that it's okay to feel your feelings, I learn it for myself. So I think a lot of it has been mothering. That's so interesting. I'm sure any parent knows, as you go through the different ages of your child, you revisit those ages in yourself. So I've had to do a lot of healing around three-year-old Rachel and then four-year-old Rachel and five-year-old. And my daughter just went to kindergarten three days ago and I couldn't believe how much I remembered from kindergarten that never that never was there. So. There were a lot of ways I did it. Um, one of the most profound was a journaling practice that um, a woman whose work is called,

• 8:24Rachel Platten?

  she's sorry, her name is Nicole Sacks.

• 8:26Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 8:27Rachel Platten?

  And she has an amazing, amazing community and a podcast that um, is called The Cure For Chronic Pain. And I don't know if I told you, but I also, in addition to dealing with the anxiety journey and the postpartum journey, I dealt with, I think you knew this, I dealt with chronic pain.

• 8:42Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 8:42Rachel Platten?

  For two years. So inhale.

• 8:44Lewis Howes?

  Your hip or your back?

• 8:45Rachel Platten?

  My hip, right, right. But what I learned was it was all the same thing. My back pain was my anxiety.

• 8:51Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 8:51Rachel Platten?

  Was my headaches, was my, yep, all the same thing. It was just my nervous system.

• 8:56Lewis Howes?

  What were you anxious about?

• 8:58Rachel Platten?

  I mean, what wasn't I anxious about? I was a mess. Like I, my hormones, first of all, were completely out of whack after giving birth twice. I'm really rocked by hormones. Anyway, I'm forty three, so I'm probably somewhat perimenopausal. I'm not sure exactly where, but um, I was anxious about the pandemic. I was anxious about having a new baby. I was anxious about how would my older child fit in with the younger child? I was anxious about will my career, like we talked about, will I ever be relevant again? Will it, is it done? Did my moment happen? Is it over? I was anxious about money. If I'm the breadwinner, you know, what am I gonna do? I was terrified. There was so much. I was anxious. My mom had cancer, you know, it was like, it was just so much. And my husband passed a kidney

• 9:41Rachel Platten?

  stone and like, my uncle died and just life. Like, mine's no worse than what everyone else is experiencing, but just life. And it all piled up and I was bottling it up. I was bottling it up. And that's where the spiritual bypass comes in and is dangerous. For me, it was dangerous because I had learned this kind of positive psychology of like, well, think good thoughts, manifest things, you know, don't stay in the darkness because then I won't be able to manifest the good stuff and I'll just manifest more bad stuff. And I think that that's really unhealthy. I, I, I wish more, I wish more people talked about it and understood it from someone who's really suffered with their mental health. When you have feelings that you're repressing for enough time,

• 10:25Rachel Platten?

  there's only so much that this well can hold until it starts spilling over. And once your nervous system, once it starts spilling over, your nervous system signals, oh, my gosh, we're in fight or flight right now. We're not okay. And your whole body starts reacting in different ways, whether it's your hip or your migraines or your, my voice, or anxiety, or panic attacks, or dissociation, they were all the same thing. So I needed to learn how to dip a ladle in and scoop out the reservoir. And how I did that was through therapy, medication, journaling, actually getting in touch, EMDR, actually getting in touch with the suppressed rage, fear, grief that we all have as humans.

• 11:07Rachel Platten?

  But we learn really early on, like think of a toddler having a tantrum. We are learn really early on that those emotions aren't acceptable. And we repress them. And that's not a bad thing. Like, we have to get along in the world, you know? But when that emotional well gets too full, it is a bad thing because our body chooses pain. It's think it's safe. It's like safe in the unsafest way. It chooses pain over experiencing the true terror, rage, or pain you're feeling. So I had to go in and just look at all that and like hold myself and say, Rach, we're gonna look and you're gonna be okay. And we're gonna look safely and we're gonna look resourced. And little by little, I looked at the dark. I turned them into songs. I transmuted my pain into art.

• 11:52Rachel Platten?

  I saw it and I, and I shone a light. It's like shining a light in the dark. Like, all of a sudden, you just need one little light to light up the dark, right? I just put on one little light in the dark and I started looking around. And I realized this isn't so dangerous. You know, it's scary and it's hard, but I'm, I'm not, I'm not gonna die.

• 12:12Lewis Howes?

  What were you most scared of facing?

• 12:15Rachel Platten?

  During postpartum depression and anxiety, I think the scariest thing that I needed help from EMDR with was the insomnia I felt, the insomnia I was experiencing, I'm sorry.

• 12:26Lewis Howes?

  Couldn't sleep.

• 12:27Rachel Platten?

  I couldn't sleep. And there was a time when, you might have been my neighbor at this point, there was a time for three nights that I was up, just not a wink of sleep, not a second. And the terror was-

• 12:38Lewis Howes?

  What was causing that?

• 12:39Rachel Platten?

  It was my hormones.

• 12:40Lewis Howes?

  Anxiety or a hormone?

• 12:41Rachel Platten?

  Yeah, I know. It was, it was, it was my hormones.

• 12:43Lewis Howes?

  Stress?

• 12:44Rachel Platten?

  It was like the drop in progesterone and stress and like, it was a month after getting birth. So the hormones are rocked and like, in your body and your body's trying to rebalance itself. And mine has a particularly hard time. And I wish, I wish I had like, listened to my friend Gabby Bernstein, who has been on your podcast and is a dear friend. And I honestly think she helped to save my life because she told me, Rachel, enough Reiki meditation, praying it away, like, go get some effing medication, go get on a benzo to help you sleep, knock yourself out, get on an SSRI and get some real support. And I was terrified of medication, terrified. And I've heard this story so many times now

• 13:27Rachel Platten?

  online from other women like me. Like, we think, oh, we have to be perfect or, you know, we can, we have all these like incredible tools. We can go to a intuitive and they'll help us like, whatever.

• 13:39Lewis Howes?

  Meditation.

• 13:39Rachel Platten?

  That's, that's where I think LA can be a little dangerous and that stuff. I can Reiki it away, I can pray it away. I mean, I, I got certified in Reiki and nothing against it. But that doesn't help when you're like, hormones are going crazy and you aren't sleeping and you're having panic attacks. So.

• 13:54Lewis Howes?

  It can also be dangerous in the extreme of like, okay, now I'm just gonna do microdosing all day long.

• 13:59Rachel Platten?

  Exactly.

• 13:59Lewis Howes?

  I wask every weekend.

• 14:00Rachel Platten?

  Exactly.

• 14:01Lewis Howes?

  Too extreme.

• 14:03Rachel Platten?

  Exactly.

• 14:04Lewis Howes?

  One way or another.

• 14:04Rachel Platten?

  Balance of everything. If you're okay, basically, and you're like, using those as tools to open up and heal, that's beautiful. But if you're really like, having suicidal, suicidal ideation, or, which I wasn't, but if you're in a really dark spot, it's really dangerous to rely on, you know, something that- I don't know, isn't actually medically supervised and

• 14:26Lewis Howes?

  But she encouraged you to

• 14:27Rachel Platten?

  She said to me, she's like, Rachel, please go have, here's my psychiatrist, call her, get some medication, call your OBGYN.

• 14:34Lewis Howes?

  And get back on track.

• 14:35Rachel Platten?

  Get on track. And what I did with my therapist was realize it took, it took a long time to like, allow myself to fail, you know, and I'm putting quotations around it for people listening, like, I saw that as a failure. I'm not good enough.

• 14:48Lewis Howes?

  Like taking medication.

• 14:49Rachel Platten?

  I wasn't strong enough. I'm the fight song girl. I should be able to will myself out of this depression like I did last time. But I did, I finally relented and it really helped that my dad is a, you know, was trained as an industrial organizational psychologist, but a clinical psychiatrist before that. My mom's a therapist, my sister has been on an SSRI. I had a ton of friends around me. Rachel, you're gonna be okay. Like, you're not failing. This isn't bad. You're not, I was terrified of breastfeeding with it and going into my baby. Like, I was so afraid of all of it, but ultimately I made the choice and it, it saved my life.

• 15:23Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 15:23Rachel Platten?

  It saved.

• 15:24Lewis Howes?

  It allowed you to sleep, allowed you to calm things.

• 15:26Rachel Platten?

  Me to sleep instantly. After months of not sleeping, I slept like a baby that first night. And, but I woke up to my husband having a kidney stone and someone, I was like, I slept. And my nanny came in, she's like, okay, Kevin's in the hospital.

• 15:40Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 15:40Rachel Platten?

  Yeah, I was effed.

• 15:42Lewis Howes?

  What happened with him?

• 15:43Rachel Platten?

  I'm really proud of myself for not swearing, I just wanna say. Like, I just really want some props for that.

• 15:50Rachel Platten?

  I don't know, he just had a kidney stone. I don't know how he got that. I was stressed. I don't know, his wife was falling apart. He was probably like, it wasn't great, things weren't great.

• 15:59Rachel Platten?

  So, I slept, I was okay. My therapist put it like this, this medication is gonna be the scaffolding so that we can start actually building the building. Without the scaffolding in place, it doesn't matter how much work we're doing, nothing is going to be, you know, start to get built.

• 16:16Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 16:16Rachel Platten?

  So you need these, you need the structure so that we can actually, so the work we're doing is actually effective. And she was right, cuz I worked, I have worked incredibly hard, five years of amazing therapy, I have the most incredible therapist. And I've worked so hard with her, but without the support of that, those medications, I, I don't think it would have been, it would have been a drop in the bucket.

• 16:38Lewis Howes?

  What do you think was causing?

• 16:39Rachel Platten?

  The expression?

• 16:40Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I think so, drop in the bucket, yeah.

• 16:41Rachel Platten?

  Okay, great, it's good stuff.

• 16:42Lewis Howes?

  What do you think was, I guess, causing you the most overwhelm in terms of emotions or thoughts? Is it?

• 16:51Lewis Howes?

  Is it an anxiety feeling? Is it more of a depression feeling? Is it worry? Is it shame? Is it? What is the emotion or feeling that is causing the most stress?

• 17:01Rachel Platten?

  Yeah. Well, I looked at it. I asked, I looked all the way in and I asked, what is here underneath it all? And I found out that the fear, the primal fear for me, and we all have different primal fears, but mine is that I was alone, that ultimately I was alone. I wasn't loved by God. I was all alone in this world.

• 17:23Rachel Platten?

  And that was my primal fear.

• 17:25Lewis Howes?

  During this whole time of kind of stress and anxiety and depression?

• 17:27Rachel Platten?

  During the whole time, I think what was underneath all of it was that I'm alone in this world. And I have since learned how untrue that is, how deeply loved I am, how connected to God I am. And I just, but at the time, that was what I was always most afraid of.

• 17:44Lewis Howes?

  Why do you think that was in your subconscious or in your body consistently? When you had, you have a family, your parents are here, you got sports teams, fans.

• 17:56Rachel Platten?

  Yes, like millions of people. I could look online and look and how funny and ironic how empty that is. But listen, it is the most amazing thing to learn because it isn't going to fill you. No matter how many people are around you, you know this too. No matter how much love you receive, it's never going to be enough if you're not finding it within.

• 18:17Lewis Howes?

  That's true.

• 18:17Rachel Platten?

  And so I never was really learning to find it within. I was kind of like hungry, like a hungry ghost Tara Brock says. I love her work. You know, you're just like grabbing for more and more and more and scrolling for more and more. And like, I had two beautiful daughters who were healthy and I had a husband that loved me and family that was around me, loving me. And none of it was going to be enough ever.

• 18:37Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 18:38Rachel Platten?

  If I hadn't filled the well. No, because Louis, like I wasn't giving it to myself. Do you know what I mean?

• 18:43Lewis Howes?

  Why weren't you?

• 18:45Rachel Platten?

  Why don't any of us? I don't know. I hadn't learned how.

• 18:48Lewis Howes?

  But how?

• 18:49Rachel Platten?

  I don't know.

• 18:49Lewis Howes?

  How did you learn? When did you learn? How to give it to yourself? And what are the things that make you feel? That you've loved yourself and that you're not alone?

• 18:59Rachel Platten?

  Well, I can give you an example. This morning even, I am overwhelmed right now. My record's coming out in two and a half weeks. My daughter just started kindergarten. My three year old has decided she doesn't want to sleep anymore. I mean, like, it's, it's crazy.

• 19:11Lewis Howes?

  You're not sleeping yet. You've got bills to pay. You've got all these things.

• 19:14Rachel Platten?

  Yeah, like, my husband's the president of our label. We're in it together. We have all our ducks on the, you know? Everything's, what's the worst expression? All of the fires are on. Like, we're just, I have not nailed any of the expressions. But whatever, we're, we're in it. This is it. This is it. This body of work that I love more than anything is about to come out. And um, this morning, I woke up, took Violet to kindergarten. She fly, sorry, she cried and clung to me. She didn't want to go. It's new. She's having big feelings. My three year old cried and like, you know, didn't want me to leave the house. I'm leaving for rehearsal. Then I had a show and then I had a voiceless and now I have this, like, it's all stacked up, right?

• 19:55Rachel Platten?

  So I'm overwhelmed. And I had a moment in the car, this moment after, this morning after the gym. And I just felt, just, I don't have anything left. I am depleted. I'm so exhausted. What am I gonna do? How am I gonna balance this all? How am I gonna do okay today? These shows, these things, interviews? And I sat there and I remembered, I put a hand on my heart. I have so many tools now.

• 20:20Rachel Platten?

  And I said, Rachy, what do you need? Like a mom to her daughter. What do you need, my love? What do you need right now? And I listened and I heard I need to cry. And I held myself and I let myself cry.

• 20:34Rachel Platten?

  And I mothered myself. I mothered myself. I loved myself. And I just lovingly said to myself, you know, Rach, you don't have to be perfect. Just show up. God's gonna do the rest today. You just show up today, baby. One interview at a time. One thing at a time. One breath at a time. It's gonna be okay. I love you. You're allowed to fail. You're allowed to not be perfect. Who cares? And I was able to get on with the day with joy and with hope and feeling supported. And I just took it all a little bit less seriously. So those are the tools I'm using is like checking in with myself and reparenting myself.

• 21:11Lewis Howes?

  Cause it can feel like, like a lot is on the line, you know? It can feel like, oh, I've spent years building this record and it's coming out. It has to do well, otherwise it's a failure. I'm a failure, all this money invested or whatever the opinions or thoughts are, right?

• 21:26Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 21:27Lewis Howes?

  Or it's, oh, what if I never get back to where I was in the past?

• 21:30Rachel Platten?

  Oh my God, I've worked through that one already.

• 21:31Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 21:32Rachel Platten?

  Oh my God, I don't care. Who cares? I don't need to be where I was. I don't, it's, who's ever gonna recreate like the number one song in the world?

• 21:40Lewis Howes?

  Magic a bottle.

• 21:41Rachel Platten?

  That's like, come on.

• 21:41Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 21:42Rachel Platten?

  It's, I'm not gonna recreate it. So let me just enjoy what I'm doing now. I'm so proud of this work. Wherever it goes is not up to me. And I wrote a statement for my press release that I was so proud of and I like burst into tears. And I was like, yes, I'm always crying basically. And I was like, and I wrote, I said, this album is already a triumph.

• 22:01Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 22:02Rachel Platten?

  Because it saved my life.

• 22:03Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 22:03Rachel Platten?

  And anything else that comes from it is gravy.

• 22:07Lewis Howes?

  That's a good thing. That's a good perspective because I remember my first book came out in 2015 and I was so stressed about launching my first big project, right? And I really wanted to be a New York Times bestseller.

• 22:18Rachel Platten?

  I know.

• 22:19Lewis Howes?

  And I, and I hit it and I was like, okay, like it felt good, right?

• 22:23Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 22:23Lewis Howes?

  It didn't solve, like the heavens didn't open up and like all my problems were solved. It wasn't like millions of dollars just flooded to me. It really didn't do anything, but it was just, was a little thing.

• 22:32Rachel Platten?

  You needed it, yeah.

• 22:33Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it's like you hit number one song and the billboard is like, okay, that's a cool feeling.

• 22:36Rachel Platten?

  Right.

• 22:36Lewis Howes?

  It's a validation, right? And so then I launched another book two years later and I remember being like, okay, I really need to hit the New York Times again, and it didn't hit. And I got really angry for like a couple of weeks. I couldn't enjoy the process. And at the same time, this book was probably my most meaningful piece of work ever because it was about how men can heal and how men can take the masks off. And that, even though it hasn't sold the most or whatever been the biggest hit. So many men email me and tell me that's how it's healed them.

• 23:05Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 23:06Lewis Howes?

  Right? And how it's like, even if one person.

• 23:09Rachel Platten?

  Yes.

• 23:09Lewis Howes?

  It impacted and it helped them, it was worth it.

• 23:12Rachel Platten?

  Yes.

• 23:12Lewis Howes?

  Right? And so on my last book, I remember feeling the same way that you did recently, which is like, I completed the book, it's already a success.

• 23:22Rachel Platten?

  Yes.

• 23:22Lewis Howes?

  Even if it doesn't sell, whatever, it helped me process, it helped me get clearer on my life, it helped me

• 23:29Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 23:30Lewis Howes?

  grieve, whatever it is.

• 23:31Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 23:31Lewis Howes?

  You know, it's therapeutic.

• 23:32Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 23:33Lewis Howes?

  And if it can help one person or thousands or millions, then great, it's a blessing.

• 23:37Rachel Platten?

  That is exactly.

• 23:39Lewis Howes?

  And trying to let go of the, the end result of it needing to hit a certain thing.

• 23:43Rachel Platten?

  I mean, it isn't up to me, it isn't up to you.

• 23:45Lewis Howes?

  It's challenging though, it's challenging to do.

• 23:47Rachel Platten?

  I mean, it is, but I've been doing this now for 20 years and, and so I have really, I can really say that I mean it. You know, I, I can stand behind what I'm saying. I, I took a lot of work and even this summer I was thrashing and angry at God and like, I want more, I want more, I want, and I had to work through it again.

• 24:03Lewis Howes?

  Really, this summer?

• 24:04Rachel Platten?

  Yeah, like just like two months ago. I mean, I have this whole time been so surrendered and so at peace and so excited for the most part about this project, basically because like every day I'm excited to wake up because I'm not waking up with anxiety or pain. I, it's so easy to love life when you've been in such a dark place and I don't take anything for granted, or I try not to.

• 24:23Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 24:23Rachel Platten?

  I mean, I forget sometimes, but um, yeah, I had a moment, like I had a week or two this summer where I wanted something else and I wanted something more and I wanted some festivals or whatever it was that my ego at the moment wanted to feel important and feel, and um, I had to work through it all over again, but it was a quicker process this time and I just, it was like, kind of like, you know, when you're learning a lesson and you feel like you've learned it, but then there's one final like, rah.

• 24:46Lewis Howes?

  Test.

• 24:47Rachel Platten?

  Right? That was it.

• 24:48Lewis Howes?

  You gotta surrender.

• 24:49Rachel Platten?

  Yeah. And then I, then after that, after crying for a week and mad at God, I fully surrendered.

• 24:55Lewis Howes?

  I think we, we don't learn the lesson until we learn to create a boundary around the thing that we, that we're really trying to create. Right? It's like, until you're able to create a boundary with that relationship you have with needing more.

• 25:07Rachel Platten?

  Yes, yes.

• 25:08Lewis Howes?

  When you created that boundary and you said, actually, I'm fine with whatever happens.

• 25:13Rachel Platten?

  I'm good.

• 25:13Lewis Howes?

  And I'm gonna show up fully as me and I'm gonna do my best and I'm gonna be.

• 25:16Rachel Platten?

  Exactly. I'm not gonna try any less hard.

• 25:18Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 25:19Rachel Platten?

  I'm surrendered, but that doesn't mean I'm not gonna hope for it. Now my attitude is, wouldn't it be nice if it? Was on the chart again. Wouldn't it be nice? How fun would that be? What a delight. But I don't need it.

• 25:31Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 25:31Rachel Platten?

  And also, you know what helped me do that? Is my husband is running our label. And he has shown me the breakdown of being an indie artist for a major versus a major label artist. I literally, for my life to support my family, don't need it to be a major thing.

• 25:45Lewis Howes?

  As an indie artist?

• 25:46Rachel Platten?

  As an indie artist.

• 25:46Lewis Howes?

  Because you own more rights and you have more.

• 25:48Rachel Platten?

  I own my masters. I own most of the publishing. I am the primary writer on most of the songs. And I produced it myself with my two best friends who are Grammy winners. It's not like a bunch of friends. You know, like, they're incredible. But, um, yeah, the financials on it. And now I'm lucky because I already have a fan base. So it's hard because I'll say this, like, you don't need to be on a label. But if you've had a hit, it makes it a bit easier. Yeah, so I have a fan base. But the thing is, I don't actually need it to do. I don't need my beautiful body of work to be anything other than it is. It can go into the world. It already has supported us from the four songs I've released.

• 26:23Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 26:24Rachel Platten?

  The streaming that it's doing.

• 26:25Lewis Howes?

  It's already brought in.

• 26:26Rachel Platten?

  Yes.

• 26:26Lewis Howes?

  Revenue and.

• 26:27Rachel Platten?

  Yes.

• 26:27Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 26:28Rachel Platten?

  And it's, it's crazy what artists are convinced that they need from major labels. Because the tiny little, like, percentage that you earn of your masters.

• 26:36Lewis Howes?

  Nothing.

• 26:37Rachel Platten?

  I'm sorry, yeah, is nothing. You need it to be a gigantic hit in order to see money. So I've learned my lesson.

• 26:45Lewis Howes?

  I mean, for example, I mean, I think Fight Song has almost a billion streams on Spotify.

• 26:50Rachel Platten?

  Yeah, just on Spotify alone. Over, I think, across everything, it has like two or two billion.

• 26:54Lewis Howes?

  Wow, it's amazing. YouTube and Apple and everywhere else it is.

• 26:57Rachel Platten?

  Three billion with everything.

• 26:58Lewis Howes?

  Three billion.

• 26:59Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 26:59Lewis Howes?

  It's incredible.

• 27:00Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 27:00Lewis Howes?

  But if, if, if a label owns that.

• 27:03Rachel Platten?

  I've never really bragged about that.

• 27:04Lewis Howes?

  Right? Three billion streams across everything. That's amazing. But if a label owns that, you get a much smaller piece than if you owned that. It would be like 10, 20, 50 times more.

• 27:14Rachel Platten?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 27:15Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 27:15Rachel Platten?

  If I owned the master of a Fight Song, kid, we wouldn't be in the same neighborhood.

• 27:22Rachel Platten?

  This is a lovely place, but yeah.

• 27:25Rachel Platten?

  No, but um, but I am gonna get to re-record it cuz I will, my, the master reverts to me and I'm gonna re-record it like Taylor did her versions, I'm gonna do my versions.

• 27:33Lewis Howes?

  But how's that work? Does that actually work? Like, does it, when she re-recorded?

• 27:37Rachel Platten?

  I mean, she's Taylor, so like she is the whole entire world listening. I don't know if people will choose my Rachel's version to scream. But I, it will be the 10th anniversary and so I think that there will be some movement attention around like wildfire will turn 10, that's the record that had Stand By You and Better Place and Fight Song. And so I'm gonna do like four or five of them.

• 27:56Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 27:57Rachel Platten?

  Reimagined in the sound and the sonics of this new record, which is quite a departure from the early stuff.

• 28:04Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. So, I mean, I don't know anything about this world, but when she, cuz she re-recorded it like a year or two ago, right? Is that something?

• 28:11Rachel Platten?

  She's been in the process of it, I think, over the last four years.

• 28:14Lewis Howes?

  How is that done?

• 28:15Rachel Platten?

  She goes into the studio and she just.

• 28:17Lewis Howes?

  I mean, she's launched it already, right? Or no? Has she launched some songs?

• 28:21Rachel Platten?

  Yeah. Do you mean how is it done like sonically or how is it done?

• 28:24Lewis Howes?

  No, she's remastered them, right?

• 28:26Rachel Platten?

  Not remastered them, she's actually recreated them. Yeah, exactly.

• 28:29Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha. But she's launched some of them.

• 28:31Rachel Platten?

  She's launched, yeah.

• 28:31Lewis Howes?

  And she's making money off them?

• 28:33Rachel Platten?

  Yes.

• 28:33Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 28:34Rachel Platten?

  It's amazing.

• 28:34Lewis Howes?

  So people aren't listening to the original, they're listening to the new version?

• 28:37Rachel Platten?

  I don't think it matters with her audience cuz it's so massive that people are just, she, like, people are listening to everything she puts out, right?

• 28:43Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha. Okay.

• 28:44Rachel Platten?

  Yeah. I mean, it was the smartest thing.

• 28:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, really smart.

• 28:47Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 28:49Lewis Howes?

  Your, your album is amazing. I went to your, I think it was your first, I mean, I was in your back house, like, as you're finishing songs and.

• 28:56Rachel Platten?

  Three years ago?

• 28:57Lewis Howes?

  Sharing stuff, two years, a year and a half ago, two years ago, you're like, I just finished the song and you played Mercy for me, it was incredible. And you're like, yeah, we're still editing it, you know, or whatever, but it was like amazing to hear it live as you're finishing it. And then watching you at the Troubadour, I think it was like six months ago, kind of like share it for the first time, these songs to the public. You have a, you have one song called Bad Thoughts and I know you're. Big on visualization and manifesting, right? You think about manifesting.

• 29:30Rachel Platten?

  Not like I was.

• 29:32Lewis Howes?

  You used to be.

• 29:32Rachel Platten?

  I used to be.

• 29:33Lewis Howes?

  Used to be, but not anymore.

• 29:34Rachel Platten?

  Well, I feel a little bit more like, I don't know. Have you read Michael Singer's books?

• 29:41Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, the.

• 29:41Rachel Platten?

  The Surrender Experiment.

• 29:43Lewis Howes?

  I haven't read that one.

• 29:43Rachel Platten?

  The Untethered Soul.

• 29:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, The Untethered Soul.

• 29:45Rachel Platten?

  Yeah, I mean, I have a tricky thing with manifesting. I did the other day, my friend is very into it. Eight eight, like Lion's Gate, she's like, we gotta manifest, we gotta manifest. But I feel a little bit like I'm not so in control as I thought I was. And it's kind of a good feeling. I kind of feel a little bit more peace and a little bit more faith and a little bit more, just feel deeply connected to God and, and like we're co-creating together. And it's not so much up to me to think the right way or visualize the right thing or, or like think so perfectly. Because the danger with that is if you went through a mental health battle, you know that you are not in control of your thoughts. And if you, if you believe that you are for the good, then that means you have to believe that you are when you're thinking something that is very scary and terrifying.

• 30:29Rachel Platten?

  And I had to give up that belief and let myself off the hook and.

• 30:34Lewis Howes?

  If you have bad thoughts consistently, do you feel like you can create a meaningful life and have your dreams come true?

• 30:40Rachel Platten?

  I think what our job is, is to be honest with what we're thinking. I don't think we should let it ever run away with it. Like, I don't think we should give it free rein. We have to make sure that the self is in there. Have you done any IFS work?

• 30:53Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 30:53Rachel Platten?

  Yeah, I love that stuff. So like capital S self.

• 30:56Lewis Howes?

  I had Frank on who's like the big, yeah, yeah.

• 30:58Rachel Platten?

  I'd love, I gotta listen to that episode.

• 31:00Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it's amazing.

• 31:01Rachel Platten?

  You have to make sure that the self is in there because the person usually that's the, the version of you, the, the self that's in there, that's, um, that is feeling all that fear and anxiety and devastation and rage is, is only just a part of you. It's not the real you, the centered you, the centered you that's one with God and one with everything. So, look, I mean, you're not going to give it. The wheel of the bus. But I also think that denying it and shutting it out and being scared of it is the wrong thing. At least it was for me. You know, then it just was denying what actually is. So in my deep struggle, when every day was negative scary thoughts, every day was panic, every day was dissociation. There was nothing I could do.

• 31:46Rachel Platten?

  There was no amount of like manifesting I could do to force those thoughts away. I had at some point to just say, this is what's here. I love you, Rachel. I love you and I accept you. I'm here anyway. I love you anyway. And so I really believe now that I don't want to look at anyone and be like, get rid of those thoughts. I just want to hold them and hug them and and teach them through my songs, through my own life, how to love themselves and say, I love all of me. I love the scary thoughts that are here. I love the bad thoughts. I love the fear. I love the anxiety because I'm human. And it all is what's here. It just is already here. What are we going to do? Push it away?

• 32:30Rachel Platten?

  You know, to love, to actually change something has to start with radical acceptance of what is. And so real change only happens once you say yes to what actually is here. And that's why I think the manifesting can be a little tricky. At least the way I was doing it and learning it and how I see people doing it online and like talking about it. I'm more like, hey, yes, yes, but first meet what's here. First, let it all come up and love it. And then, once it's not a terrified little screaming child inside of you demanding your attention, trying to grab the wheel. Once you bring capitalist self back, like the the God self back into and back into there, sorry, back onto the bus and say, hi, hi, my love.

• 33:15Rachel Platten?

  I'm here. I see you're afraid and you can be on this bus with me, but you can't drive because you're five.

• 33:21Lewis Howes?

  Right, exactly.

• 33:22Rachel Platten?

  Or 10 or 15 or whatever age they're attracted to.

• 33:25Lewis Howes?

  That's what I think. If your anxiety or bad thoughts are running your life.

• 33:30Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 33:30Lewis Howes?

  It's got to be hard to create something fulfilling. And if you create something.

• 33:34Rachel Platten?

  It's going to be hard to live.

• 33:35Lewis Howes?

  And if you create something from a place of.

• 33:39Lewis Howes?

  Lack or anxiety, it's not gonna feel enough. You know, what you're creating, it's not gonna feel like you're safe still. You're gonna need more, more, more.

• 33:48Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 33:48Lewis Howes?

  As opposed to accepting where you're at.

• 33:49Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 33:50Lewis Howes?

  I guess that's why my question was around that, but. So how do we navigate then? Cause we grew up in the eighties, early eighties. And for me, it was, you know, don't talk about feelings at all. It was like, don't cry, don't talk about feelings. Just like do your job, you know? Essentially, don't act like a child. You know, it's kind of what it is.

• 34:10Rachel Platten?

  Right.

• 34:11Lewis Howes?

  Like shut up your emotions. Yeah, exactly.

• 34:12Rachel Platten?

  Shut it down.

• 34:14Lewis Howes?

  Where, you know, being in LA, I see more of an extreme side of like, if a child is having a breakdown, it's like, okay, let's talk for 90 minutes about your feelings every single day. Let's address your feelings. Let's get on our knees and look at our children like all day long and just share your feelings, share your feelings.

• 34:31Rachel Platten?

  Parents really have it hard right now. Like we're being told, no, it is so confusing. You're, we're being told like gentle parenting has been totally misunderstood.

• 34:39Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 34:39Rachel Platten?

  Boundaries are essential. We're, you know, anyway, keep going, but I, I have my own thoughts about that.

• 34:45Lewis Howes?

  I feel like there's, again, I don't have kids yet, but I know you have this and you're around like other moms and parents and schools. And so you're seeing this. I almost feel like there's another extreme that's happened since when we grew up.

• 34:56Rachel Platten?

  Too permissive and too permissive to the anxiety.

• 34:59Lewis Howes?

  Dream all day, run around, you know, do whatever, no boundaries, no structure.

• 35:03Rachel Platten?

  No, that is not what I think.

• 35:05Lewis Howes?

  And I feel like either side has its problems of, of developing young children into having some type of anxiety, stress or problematic symptoms as teens and adults.

• 35:18Rachel Platten?

  Yes.

• 35:19Lewis Howes?

  Whether it be an entitlement or a lack of drive or whatever it might be, right?

• 35:22Rachel Platten?

  Yeah, I mean, we're.

• 35:23Lewis Howes?

  How can we, how can we address that in this time and age when we haven't, when certain adults haven't learned the tools on how to love and self-soothe and self-parent?

• 35:32Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 35:33Lewis Howes?

  But also raising children.

• 35:37Lewis Howes?

  Without needing them to like you, because there's gonna be a lot of times they're not gonna like you.

• 35:42Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 35:42Lewis Howes?

  And not just giving in to them constantly to so that they have your approval. How do you learn?

• 35:48Rachel Platten?

  Come back to me when you're a dad. Like literally, you have no idea what you're talking about. Don't be kidding. No, I'm messing with you.

• 35:54Lewis Howes?

  How do you navigate?

• 35:55Rachel Platten?

  And I love this conversation, but I gotta tell you, when you can have all the ideas about what you think people should be doing and how you think people should be parenting, until you are actually met with a tantrum.

• 36:07Lewis Howes?

  I'm sure.

• 36:08Rachel Platten?

  In public and your own child. My God, I had all the judgments and how I was gonna do things and what I was gonna do and how and and one kid to two kids. I mean, it is a show. It is like.

• 36:21Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. How do you navigate it? I have no idea.

• 36:22Rachel Platten?

  I don't know. I'm still learning. My, my, my oldest is only five. I'm still finding out what kind of mom I am. I'm still figuring it out. My parents were permissive and then scary authoritative.

• 36:35Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 36:36Rachel Platten?

  Like, like cheering me on, rooting me on, and then terrifying.

• 36:40Lewis Howes?

  Go to your room.

• 36:41Rachel Platten?

  Loud noises, doors slamming, scary stuff. So I am really anti yelling and screaming in my house. But I've had to learn with my therapist and in couples therapy, I've had to learn what is my way of setting a firm boundary with my children? Because they cannot be jerks. They cannot be entitled. I will not raise those children. And also they're, they're being raised very different than I am with so much money, with so much privilege, with, with beauty and like all the stuff that, you know? I mean, I was pretty cute, but, but like we were, we didn't have money. We were, it was a very different life. It wasn't like, yeah, anything you want, you could have at any moment. So my husband and I are figuring this out as we go in real time.

• 37:22Rachel Platten?

  And I have to find my way of having firm boundaries because my way is not yelling. My husband's is yelling and I, I hate it. And he doesn't yell all the time, but when like you really mess with him, he will scream at the girls and they will just look at him like, what the hell is going? They're terrified. And I have a really big problem with that because I do like more of the gentle parenting. But with gentle parenting, you have to have. Firm boundaries, you have to stick to them. You have to do what you say you're gonna do. Because if any of that is lax, then you will raise an entitled child. But for me, I've really learned that like, and it's the same with myself. The way that I parent myself is the way I'm parenting my children.

• 37:58Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 37:58Rachel Platten?

  It is allowed, your feelings are valid, they are allowed, they are not allowed to hurt someone else. They are not allowed to get in the way of your life and like, right? But they are going to be heard and witnessed and they are all okay because you're human and they're part of being human. And we're going to love and support you and, and help you kind of move, I don't know. Raise what's below to the light, right? So that it's not trapped down there. I don't want my daughters to think that they aren't allowed to cry and have tantrums, but they can do it in their room. And they can do it in a safe place and they cannot hurt each other and they cannot hurt themselves, right?

• 38:33Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 38:34Rachel Platten?

  So it's like.

• 38:35Lewis Howes?

  I'm asking you.

• 38:36Rachel Platten?

  I don't know. I mean, I don't know either. I'm figuring it out. I don't.

• 38:39Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 38:40Rachel Platten?

  I don't know. It's so hard to be a mom and like, I'm learning as I go.

• 38:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, that's, I mean, how do you, I mean, for moms or women who want to be moms, but also want to have their careers or have a dream that they want to pursue their art, their music, or whatever it might be.

• 38:58Lewis Howes?

  What do you say to them before they become a mom? If they want to also be the breadwinner, also be earning full time, like working full time as an artist or a career individual and having one child, it's gotta be one of the hardest things. To be a mom full time and then have the energy and the thought capacity to create beyond being a mom.

• 39:21Rachel Platten?

  Well.

• 39:22Lewis Howes?

  It's gotta be one of the hardest things.

• 39:23Rachel Platten?

  It was one of the things that I thought would, I thought that they would be opposites. Before I became a mom, I thought that if I had children, it would steal my creativity. That it would, my creativity would suffer. And what I have learned is that it could not be more. It could not be less true.

• 39:43Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 39:44Rachel Platten?

  It is the opposite. My creativity has expanded so much. I mean, think of the act of creating a child. It is the most creative you will ever be in your life. Right? You are literally creating a human. You are so tapped in to divine, to creation.

• 39:57Lewis Howes?

  To magic.

• 39:58Rachel Platten?

  To magic. Once you create a human, you can create anything. Like, my songs flowed so easy as if God turned on a faucet that just never got shut off. And creating for me is so much more easy and natural and flows. I mean, first of all, the range of what I feel from being, becoming a mom, as we said earlier, is so much more wide and like wild.

• 40:22Lewis Howes?

  And just live experience in general.

• 40:24Rachel Platten?

  Life experience. So I have so much to pull from. I mean, I can like harness and transmute all of that terror and grief and rage. I told you, I went down and witnessed and I can turn them into this beautiful art that still actually sounds joyful somehow. There's joy in the pain that I'm singing about.

• 40:41Lewis Howes?

  But how do you have the energy and the capacity to create?

• 40:45Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 40:45Lewis Howes?

  You might have ideas and like it might flow when you have energy at time, but when you're a full-time mom and and even if your, your kids are in school or you have daycare or nanny support every now and then, whether it might be your babysitters for a few hours a day, you're still thinking about your kids all day long. You're still, your body's still responding to healing after a first few years. You're still need energy. You're up all night because your child, what's the better?

• 41:11Rachel Platten?

  Yeah, that happened last night.

• 41:13Lewis Howes?

  They, they sleep with you and they're kicking you all night or whatever it is. It's beautiful, but it's also challenging.

• 41:17Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 41:17Lewis Howes?

  Like, how do you have energy during the day to be a full-time mom, a full-time creator and, and bring in the money to support family?

• 41:25Rachel Platten?

  Well, first of all, my husband has since started working for me and now is a partner.

• 41:29Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 41:29Rachel Platten?

  And so it's amazing. He's bringing more income in from having come in and transformed my business.

• 41:34Lewis Howes?

  Sure, sure.

• 41:35Rachel Platten?

  So it's not all on me anymore and that has been a gigantic relief.

• 41:38Lewis Howes?

  It's big.

• 41:38Rachel Platten?

  Yeah, it's amazing.

• 41:39Lewis Howes?

  For women to just want to generate money.

• 41:41Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 41:41Lewis Howes?

  You know, they want to make money also as well as being moms.

• 41:44Rachel Platten?

  I have two things. I have two thoughts on this. One is, I want you to think about the busiest time in your life. How productive were you when you only had a 30 minutes to be productive?

• 41:54Lewis Howes?

  Very productive.

• 41:55Rachel Platten?

  Versus when you had nothing going on and you had all day?

• 41:58Lewis Howes?

  Very productive, but there's a time you're gonna crash at some point.

• 42:02Rachel Platten?

  Yeah, yeah, okay.

• 42:02Lewis Howes?

  You're doing that every day for months.

• 42:03Rachel Platten?

  I crashed this morning, but Taylor taught me, Taylor Swift taught me, when I, Fights on was exploding and we were like, and I met her and I was like, I don't know what I'm doing. I have to be in Paris and then Japan and then I don't, I don't know how to do this. And she said, you aren't gonna have days off, you are gonna have moments off. You're gonna, you're gonna

• 42:22Rachel Platten?

  draw all your energy back in, in moments at a time. So that's one thing. Like, I can't look right now at my calendar. My calendar's insane.

• 42:29Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 42:29Rachel Platten?

  I cannot look at it for the next three months. It is packed every day. It's insane, but

• 42:34Lewis Howes?

  This is a season of life, too.

• 42:36Rachel Platten?

  It's a season. It's three months. Exactly. Exactly.

• 42:39Lewis Howes?

  You're all in.

• 42:39Rachel Platten?

  Exactly. I'm all in. My husband and I are all in. We have everyone around us supporting us.

• 42:44Lewis Howes?

  You're saying yes to everything.

• 42:45Rachel Platten?

  My team is like, yep. So that's where I'm at right now. It's just a season. I've been doing this long enough to know now, this isn't forever. This is right now. I also have incredible moments off and days off and weeks off because of the career I chose. So there will be a lull and I will get to be around my babies all day long and it will be delicious. Okay, that's my one thought. And then the other thought I have is that my spiritual practice has been absolutely essential in keeping my energy up. I didn't have this tool before. I didn't have this deep connection to God before. And now that I do, I literally give it to God. I literally say, you do it. I write, I wanna show you what I write. I wanna show you.

• 43:26Lewis Howes?

  What do you say?

• 43:27Rachel Platten?

  I make a check mark for God. And before a show, I do it, before something I'm scared of, before a day, before an intense performance, I literally write a list of what I'm scared of. I made this up. I don't know if this is like, people are gonna listen and be like, what the hell are you talking about? But I want you to imagine three columns. The first column, I write down all my fears and all my worries and all my stress. The second column, I write down my job. And I write

• 43:49Lewis Howes?

  Like, what do you mean?

• 43:50Rachel Platten?

  Like, okay, I'll tell you. I'll give you an example. Let's say I was doing one about the Lewis podcast. I'm nervous. I love Lewis. This podcast is huge. I wanna do a good job. I want people to, I wanna come off well. I want people to go listen to my music. I wanna be successful, right? What is my job? My job, what God tells me my job is, is to breathe? Be in the moment, give it to him and have fun. That's it. That's my job. And then I write the third column, what's God's job? And on God's column is everything.

• 44:19Lewis Howes?

  Everything.

• 44:19Rachel Platten?

  Make it go so well, make me adorable, hilarious, funny, charming. You do it and then like make it the most successful pod, make Lewis love it and like whatever. God has all this to do. And then I make a checkbox for him and I crack up and I write, I'm like right on it. Go God, go yay God, don't worry, you can do it, God. And I cheer him on. It's like ridiculous. It's like so ridiculous. And then I crack up because I look at my job versus God's job. And I'm like, oh, bro, you have a lot of work to do. I'm gonna go chill, but good luck to you. And then I come back and I remember to check him off and I give him A pluses. And I'm like, very good job. And I like give him stickers and he has not failed me ever. And that's what I do for energy.

• 45:01Lewis Howes?

  What do you think is the difference between putting all the weight and pressure on you to do a good job and perform versus

• 45:07Rachel Platten?

  Oh, my God.

• 45:08Lewis Howes?

  allowing God in your life to deliver?

• 45:10Rachel Platten?

  I don't have to do anything. I have to show up. I have to show up and I have to be the clearest vase that I can. God is the flowers. My job is literally just to be the clearest vase for people to see them. And that's hard work. It takes hard work to be a clear vase, but I can do that. I can't shine and shimmer. I can't guarantee people will love me. I can't be delightful and perfect and pleasing, right? But I can do my work to be a clear vase. I can meditate. I can do my breath work. I can have therapy. I can work out. I can keep my body healthy. I can keep my mind healthy. That's my job in being a clear vase, right? And the pressure's off other than that. My job is not, what are people are going to think of me? My job is not, how am I going to come off? What is the success going to be? What is the result going to be? It is literally just to be the best version I can.

• 45:55Lewis Howes?

  When did you start this practice of, of giving it up to God?

• 45:59Rachel Platten?

  In the middle of the darkest depression, when I had no other choice.

• 46:03Lewis Howes?

  Couple of years ago?

• 46:03Rachel Platten?

  Yeah, a couple of years ago, when I was completely at a loss on my knees in the studio that you came to a couple of times on my knees in the middle of the night at 2am. My baby had had a hundred five degree temperature that night. She was two months old. My husband had a passing a kidney stone. I wasn't sleeping. I was absolutely at the lowest. And my uncle just died. I was at the lowest I've ever been in my life. I was terrified. I didn't know how to keep going. And I screamed on the floor of my studio, mercy, mercy. I'm done. Mercy. And this song came out of me. This song mercy came out of me.

• 46:42Rachel Platten?

  At two in the morning, like all at once, this rush, this answer of, of music.

• 46:53Rachel Platten?

  I felt a presence that I'd never felt in my life. And I've always written with something, but I didn't know what it was that was flowing through me. And that night, I knew without a doubt that that beautiful piece of art came through that pain. There had to be something bigger than me in this world that was listening. And from then, I just was so hungry for it.

• 47:15Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 47:15Rachel Platten?

  And I sought it out, and I asked, and I searched, and I, and I implored God, keep showing yourself to me. Please, please, please keep delighting me, keep helping me, keep healing me. And he did, over and over. And music came, music came, music came, like so much music.

• 47:32Lewis Howes?

  Did you have a relationship to God before then?

• 47:35Rachel Platten?

  I think I did, but I didn't know him. And I, and I, I didn't know. I didn't understand that he was actually like listening to me and, and right there and right here in my heart. And, and that it was someone that I didn't have to go through someone else to get to. That was the other thing about LA and that this world that we're kind of entrenched in that I think messed me up. I kept thinking there needed to be this intermediary to get me to God. Like, okay, I'd go to like a medical intuitive or an intuitive or a psychic or a Reiki person. They connect me. And I was so desperate for it that I'd go all the time. Like, I want that, I want to understand how to reach, you know, my Creator. And you know how to do it for me, so you do it. And I'd ask people to pray for me for things and like,

• 48:20Rachel Platten?

  because I had so much fear and that's where the aloneness felt like.

• 48:24Lewis Howes?

  What were you afraid of?

• 48:25Rachel Platten?

  Being alone, like being that no one would be there when I went to ask, that no one would hear me. Like, do you feel loved by God? Do you feel a connection?

• 48:35Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I do. I didn't always though. I mean, growing up, I felt very insecure.

• 48:40Rachel Platten?

  Me too.

• 48:40Lewis Howes?

  Very alone.

• 48:41Rachel Platten?

  Yeah, me too.

• 48:42Lewis Howes?

  I used to go to the principal's office all the time in elementary school and just say, I wish I were dead. I wish I were dead over and over again because I felt like no one cared. Obviously, my parents were there for me, you know, obviously, like, you know, my siblings, but it's just, you know, I just felt alone. And it didn't probably matter how much someone loved me. I didn't know how to receive the love probably also. And so for years, it wasn't until maybe 10, 11 years ago, when I started my healing journey, where I felt a deeper sense of love for self and love for God.

• 49:15Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 49:16Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 49:17Rachel Platten?

  Thank you for sharing that.

• 49:18Lewis Howes?

  Of course, yeah. But it's

• 49:19Rachel Platten?

  I know the feeling.

• 49:19Lewis Howes?

  It's challenging.

• 49:20Rachel Platten?

  I know the feeling.

• 49:21Lewis Howes?

  And so everything for me was driving, you know, I can relate to you because I was driven for so long to succeed, to feel loved and accepted.

• 49:29Rachel Platten?

  Exactly.

• 49:30Lewis Howes?

  But then it never felt like enough. It never felt like, oh, I'm not getting what I truly want, so let me go get more.

• 49:35Rachel Platten?

  Right.

• 49:36Lewis Howes?

  And keep accomplishing.

• 49:37Rachel Platten?

  Exactly.

• 49:38Lewis Howes?

  And things started to shift for me 10 years ago where I said,

• 49:43Lewis Howes?

  I want to, I want to create my life based on a vision that I have to serve people.

• 49:49Rachel Platten?

  Yes.

• 49:50Lewis Howes?

  And if I have a dream to write a book or something else, and I can still go for goals, but it needs to be in the service of others.

• 49:59Rachel Platten?

  It needs to be in service is fundamental now in anything I do. I am exactly the same, Louis. Same, we are so similar in our journeys. I needed to achieve more and more and more, and we are both very driven people and we have achieved a lot. And we have both been through the school of greatness and we have achieved great things and all of your guests have and probably most of your listeners do like. But what we've found is that there is an emptiness in it, right? Unless it is of service, unless you are being asked to be used, unless like you are striving is for a bigger purpose.

• 50:35Lewis Howes?

  So when you're on your knees screaming mercy at 2 a.m. in the back of your house.

• 50:40Rachel Platten?

  You're like, did neighbors call?

• 50:44Lewis Howes?

  I'm curious, like, did you feel a connection to God then?

• 50:48Rachel Platten?

  I did.

• 50:49Lewis Howes?

  Was it like the first time you really felt a connection? And if so, what did you hear or experience or notice?

• 50:56Rachel Platten?

  Yeah, crying thinking about it, because it was so.

• 51:00Rachel Platten?

  I mean, it was so powerful. And it shifted me so much and just. I mean, for me, God talks to me through songs and songwriting. So this song that came out of me.

• 51:12Rachel Platten?

  It's one of my favorite songs I've ever written. And the fact that I wrote it in 20 minutes was very obvious that it wasn't me writing it.

• 51:19Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 51:20Rachel Platten?

  So it was.

• 51:20Lewis Howes?

  It just came through you quickly.

• 51:21Rachel Platten?

  It came through me very quickly. It was almost like I was chasing it. And I was like, slow down, slow down, slow down. I'm trying, I'm slow down. I kept saying, slow down.

• 51:29Lewis Howes?

  Like the words are coming to you.

• 51:30Rachel Platten?

  The words were coming, like, I was like, stop, stop, stop. And my hands couldn't write fast enough. And I was like, please, please slow down. I kept saying out loud to anyone, slow down. And it just was coming and coming. And I was like, oh, my God, here's the verse. Okay, get back to the piano. Oh, my God. And it felt like. Like an orgasm.

• 51:47Lewis Howes?

  A musical orgasm.

• 51:48Rachel Platten?

  It was just wild. I was, and I had been in so much pain and so much suffering.

• 51:53Lewis Howes?

  It created peace, it created freedom.

• 51:55Rachel Platten?

  It felt like a taste of freedom. Now, it was, it did not last.

• 51:58Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 51:59Rachel Platten?

  Like, the song happened. It was incredible. I woke my husband up. I shook him, I was like, come downstairs.

• 52:07Rachel Platten?

  I think he had just got back from the hospital. He was exhausted. He was like, oh, no, like.

• 52:11Lewis Howes?

  You're both exhausted.

• 52:11Rachel Platten?

  Like, please don't make me wake up to hear a song of yours. Because if I don't like this song right now, I am so screwed. Like, he's like, I, I better like this song because you are so not okay right now. And I was like, no, no, Kevin, it's, it's good. And I, I played it for him with tears in my eyes.

• 52:26Lewis Howes?

  But you replayed it live or you recorded it already?

• 52:28Rachel Platten?

  No, no, no, I, I just, I, come on, I did not.

• 52:30Lewis Howes?

  I didn't know if you like recorded on your iPhone real quick.

• 52:32Rachel Platten?

  No, I did, but like I, I had, I did. I captured it. I actually have the recording of me.

• 52:36Lewis Howes?

  The original?

• 52:37Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 52:37Lewis Howes?

  Ah, that's cool.

• 52:38Rachel Platten?

  Me crying through it. And I'm like, I go, in one part, I go, oh, that's good. And I'm like, wow.

• 52:43Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 52:44Rachel Platten?

  And then I go, oh, that's good. Yeah, you hear me? And then I throw the pen down, you can hear it all. But I'd wake him up and I'd bring him down and I'd sing it for him. And his jaw is on the floor and he's like.

• 52:56Rachel Platten?

  What did, how, what? And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I think, I think God's using me. I think that there's a reason that I'm, I was like, I think there's a reason I'm suffering so much right now.

• 53:09Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 53:11Rachel Platten?

  But I still had to suffer for two more years. So like, it wasn't all great.

• 53:16Lewis Howes?

  Do you think we have to suffer to create something great?

• 53:18Rachel Platten?

  Oh my God, this sucks because I used to like vehemently argue that no, I was so

• 53:24Lewis Howes?

  But Fight Song, you weren't suffering.

• 53:25Rachel Platten?

  Yes, I was.

• 53:26Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 53:27Rachel Platten?

  Yes, you think Fight Song was born from like a chill experience?

• 53:31Lewis Howes?

  But sometimes you hear people saying they created like a love song out of just like

• 53:34Rachel Platten?

  Yeah, I love, like, who are they? I'm so annoyed with them.

• 53:37Lewis Howes?

  Like the Beatles seem to create stuff all the time.

• 53:39Rachel Platten?

  They sure did, didn't they? They seem to be having a great time.

• 53:41Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, right?

• 53:42Rachel Platten?

  I know, other people do. I don't know what it is with me and God and the muse and like what happens. But apparently for me to really reach the depths of things that reach other people, I have to for some reason. I mean, it's a transmutation. It's alchemy for me. It isn't for everybody, but it is for me. I alchemize my deep pain and I turn it into art. And that's what my vibe is. And now I've just come to accept it like, cool, cool, cool. We're gonna work again and we're gonna create again. That means I'm probably gonna be crying and, but I mean, it's not all that. I have songs on the record that are also joyful and silly and fun. Like, I'm exaggerating. Better Place was written with me delicately looking out at like a beautiful ray of sun on the trees. So like, they're not all like that. It's just that usually

• 54:26Lewis Howes?

  That moment created a song though.

• 54:27Rachel Platten?

  Yeah, usually the ones that move people the most, for some reason for me, are those. I'm not the artist that people turn to, I don't think, for like the party song. I think they come to me to feel.

• 54:36Lewis Howes?

  Interesting. Wow, okay. So since that happened, you feel like you've had a different relationship to God?

• 54:43Rachel Platten?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 54:44Lewis Howes?

  And what is that relationship now, two years later?

• 54:48Rachel Platten?

  Hmm, it's really intimate and great.

• 54:50Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 54:51Rachel Platten?

  I love him.

• 54:51Lewis Howes?

  So you feel like you have a direct channel to God? You don't have to go to someone else, man?

• 54:55Rachel Platten?

  No, I would never think to go to someone else. How crea- that idea seems so wild to me now. Why would anyone else have my answers? That doesn't make any sense to me now. I write every day these dear love letters that Elizabeth Gilbert is doing. Have you seen this?

• 55:11Lewis Howes?

  Well, she's asked me to do, write one.

• 55:12Rachel Platten?

  Louis!

• 55:13Lewis Howes?

  I've been

• 55:13Rachel Platten?

  Why aren't you doing it? I'm so annoyed with you for turning it down.

• 55:17Lewis Howes?

  I had to turn it down. I said, yes, I'll do it.

• 55:19Rachel Platten?

  Immediately, you have to do it.

• 55:20Lewis Howes?

  I, I saw yours. I saw the, the newsletter that she sent out with yours.

• 55:23Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 55:24Lewis Howes?

  Really powerful.

• 55:25Rachel Platten?

  I didn't write it.

• 55:26Lewis Howes?

  Right, exactly.

• 55:27Rachel Platten?

  I wrote it, but yeah.

• 55:28Lewis Howes?

  You shared it. You put it out there.

• 55:29Rachel Platten?

  So she writes these letters.

• 55:31Lewis Howes?

  I have it in my inbox for me to do. I've just been traveling.

• 55:33Rachel Platten?

  Oh my God, I'm so annoyed at you. I've, please do it. I want to hear what, you know, love says to you. And she calls it love. Maybe that's a more palatable, palatable word for everyone listening. And interchangeable for me. She calls it universal love. God, it triggers people that word. But I, what I'm saying when I say that is the one, the creator, the divine, that force of love in the world. And so we write every week, dear love, what would you have me know today? And when you think that you're going to be like, you think it's not going to be the answer, right? You think you're not going to hear anything? Oh my God. Literally, oh my God. Answers pour out of you. And these are just women, men, normal women and men living their life.

• 56:15Rachel Platten?

  These aren't spiritual necessarily, like holy people. These are just people just like us who are hungry for answers, who put their request out there and they get met with a flood of love and answers and support. And now there's a community on her Substack of over a hundred thousand people that are sharing these letters every day with each other. And it is unbelievably beautiful. I think it's the most beautiful place on the internet. So all I'm saying is like, it would be wild to me to go to anyone else for answers. When I have a direct line, I can literally write, and now I can just hear, I'll just ask and like, I can hear.

• 56:51Lewis Howes?

  So for 40 years, you didn't have that?

• 56:53Rachel Platten?

  No. No.

• 56:56Lewis Howes?

  It's almost like saying, I need to go to my sibling to ask what my father thinks about me.

• 57:03Rachel Platten?

  Right.

• 57:03Lewis Howes?

  Or give me advice, but I can't go directly to my dad.

• 57:06Rachel Platten?

  Right.

• 57:06Lewis Howes?

  I'm going to task my sibling to ask them.

• 57:08Rachel Platten?

  You go.

• 57:09Lewis Howes?

  And they bring it back to me.

• 57:10Rachel Platten?

  And that's going to be filtered through their own human experience. So like, that's the problem, I think, with intuitives and psychics. They're still human.

• 57:16Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 57:16Rachel Platten?

  It might be something true, but that it's going to be filtered through their own human body and feelings and thoughts.

• 57:22Lewis Howes?

  What did you need to be able to unlock that within yourself to be able to connect to God directly?

• 57:26Rachel Platten?

  I mean, I think like all hero's journeys, I needed to be on my knees, suffering at my limit, crying mercy, I surrender, anything come and help me. Like, that was what I needed. I'm stubborn, though. Someone else might have easier time getting there.

• 57:42Lewis Howes?

  But what was the unlock? Like, was it finally like, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna, I'm gonna trust and listen directly? Uh, I'm gonna let go of something, I'm gonna stop living in fear. Like, what unlocked it so you could have a direct channel to?

• 57:56Rachel Platten?

  Practice, practice. You know, it wasn't, it wasn't all at once.

• 57:59Lewis Howes?

  Were you afraid of it for a while?

• 58:01Rachel Platten?

  Of what?

• 58:02Lewis Howes?

  Connecting directly?

• 58:03Rachel Platten?

  I just was afraid that no one would be answering me. I was afraid no one would be there, that it would be true, that I would be alone. But it's not true.

• 58:11Lewis Howes?

  So in that moment, you felt like, I don't care if I'm alone, I'm just gonna listen anyways?

• 58:15Rachel Platten?

  Like, when I was crying mercy, you mean? I wasn't thinking at all. I was in so much pain.

• 58:20Lewis Howes?

  You just said, I'll do whatever.

• 58:21Rachel Platten?

  I, I didn't, I wasn't, I didn't have any plan. My plan was just to throw my forehead against the floor.

• 58:26Lewis Howes?

  You weren't in your head anymore?

• 58:27Rachel Platten?

  No. I couldn't be. I was in too much pain.

• 58:30Lewis Howes?

  You were in your heart?

• 58:31Rachel Platten?

  Yes, I was, I was broken. My heart was broken. I was shattered. I was obliterated. Rachel was gone. I was, it was just all pain that was there. It was all fear and it was all grief and it was all pain. And I couldn't think anything. I just was in so much pain. I was in so much pain.

• 58:50Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Was it physical pain? Was it spiritual pain? Was it emotional pain? What was the main pain you were feeling?

• 58:57Rachel Platten?

  It was like, it's terror. It's just terror.

• 59:01Lewis Howes?

  Was it in your head? Was it in your body? Was it in your heart? Was it?

• 59:04Rachel Platten?

  I don't know. It was everywhere.

• 59:05Lewis Howes?

  It was everywhere.

• 59:06Rachel Platten?

  It was everywhere. And I, and I now can like, go through in a meditation and kind of, ask and check in with my body and, where are you? But I mean, in the moment, I didn't have those tools. I just, in my, you know, I think that I felt so scared and so alone and so broken and like, yeah, it was just a full body feeling. Have you ever been there, that low?

• 59:28Lewis Howes?

  I've been in more like, full rage and anger.

• 59:31Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 59:32Lewis Howes?

  Probably because the emotion that I knew how to express the best, you know?

• 59:36Rachel Platten?

  Yeah, they're all the same.

• 59:37Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, exactly. Afraid, yeah. I'm curious, if you could,

• 59:43Lewis Howes?

  with the wisdom you have now and the experience you have now, if you were able to go back five years ago, and...

• 59:54Lewis Howes?

  Yourself five years ago, asked you now, Rachel from the future, how do I heal myself? What advice? Or what would you say to your younger self on how to heal? With the wisdom you have now? Knowing all the pain you experienced, all the fear, anxiety, stress, you know? Tightness in your body, worry, like? What would you be able to say to her, to her to actually listen to you? And actually take the actions to heal?

• 1:00:24Rachel Platten?

  I just wrote myself a letter that's gonna be on the copy of my vinyl. This is the first time I'm gonna have actual records, physical LPs.

• 1:00:31Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 1:00:32Rachel Platten?

  And I just wrote myself a letter. That's gonna be on the inside and it's not gonna be anywhere else. And it was, dear me, five years ago.

• 1:00:41Rachel Platten?

  And so I know exactly what I would say. And it was, this pain is going to be worse than anything you've ever experienced.

• 1:00:51Rachel Platten?

  And it goes on, but I will not wish you out of it. Because it is the way. It is the path to get where you want. And so I will be brave and I will love you and I will tell you, you're gonna be okay. You're gonna end up in a beautiful place. But I will not wish it away. I know that you're strong enough to handle this. And all of it is going to lead you exactly where you want. So I would not give myself tools to escape it or get it out of it faster. Everything had to be exactly as it was for me to feel how I feel today.

• 1:01:23Lewis Howes?

  Do we all have to go through pain and suffering in order to feel peace? Or is there a way we can?

• 1:01:30Lewis Howes?

  Premeditatively, not hack it, but say, ah, my life's not great, I'm at a seven out of 10.

• 1:01:37Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:37Lewis Howes?

  But every year I keep going at this rate, it kinda goes down a little bit. I lose a little bit of my soul, my heart, I just like, I'm just surviving. And when you can catch it and say, I know some things are off and I'm just not really connected to my body or my emotions, like, my relationships a little bit off. Is there a way you can not hack it, but you can say, I'm gonna do the work now?

• 1:01:58Rachel Platten?

  Okay, I do have an answer.

• 1:01:59Lewis Howes?

  To get to where I wanna be as opposed to, well, let me just wait five years until I go into a crash and have pain and suffer, then I wake up.

• 1:02:09Rachel Platten?

  That's not what I meant, Louis.

• 1:02:10Lewis Howes?

  It's not about hacking, but can't we?

• 1:02:12Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:12Lewis Howes?

  Is there a way we can pre? Support ourselves to improve as opposed to while just wait till it gets the horrible.

• 1:02:20Rachel Platten?

  No, no, no. Okay. So I don't mean that I don't mean like I want to leave you there, young Rachel, to just go through this alone. Like I said a lot of other things to her of like, I'm going to love you and I'm going to be there loving you. And the sooner that you can learn to love yourself and accept what is, the sooner things are going to start to change. So my answer is acceptance. What I would say to anyone is the sooner that you can be with what is, accept what is, the sooner that you are about to start to actually change something. You need to radically accept what is before you can change anything.

• 1:02:51Lewis Howes?

  And you hadn't accepted what was.

• 1:02:52Rachel Platten?

  No, I was fighting and mad and angry at God and scared and raging against it. So my work over and over and over was to say, yes, yes, I don't like this, but yes, I'm here. Yes, I don't want to be depressed. Yes, I am depressed. You know, like.

• 1:03:09Lewis Howes?

  So if you would have done that five years ago, you maybe wouldn't have had rock bottom or all this pain.

• 1:03:14Rachel Platten?

  Yeah, but like the pain brought my art. The pain brought these.

• 1:03:17Lewis Howes?

  Could have brought it the other ways too. You could have brought the, you know.

• 1:03:19Rachel Platten?

  I don't know. I kind of love the journey. I don't know. I kind of love it.

• 1:03:23Lewis Howes?

  I get it, but that's a high, high, low, low.

• 1:03:25Rachel Platten?

  But that's my vibe. That's who I am. I'm a high, high, low, low kind of girl. I've always been. It's kind of another thing I have to accept about myself. I'm not like everyone. Some people are like me, some people aren't. My husband's way more in the middle and even and like, this is no, he's nowhere like this. And one of my, yeah, but like this is how I am. I'm a songwriter. This is me. I'm an artist. I go wildly high and wildly low. I'm not going to change. The sooner that I learn to stop being so frustrated, sometimes I'll look at God and be like, are you joking? Why did you make me like this? Were you drunk? Like I'm so sensitive. How did you think I'd be okay? But I'm also so strong. I'm such a warrior and I'm so fierce. And so now I'm like, yeah, you did a good job. But like, I used to be so just like, what were you thinking?

• 1:04:10Rachel Platten?

  This is a dumb way to make a human being. This is like absurd. But now I'm like, this is Rachel. Rachel goes high and Rachel goes low. And like, so that's all that I know. That's the only advice I can give is like, I need to experience them for my art. Not every artist does. It's what I do, but I don't suffer like I used to now that I have this connection with God. That is my answer. I don't suffer. I will go low and I will go high, but I don't suffer.

• 1:04:35Lewis Howes?

  You don't stay low for a long time.

• 1:04:37Rachel Platten?

  I don't stay low. I don't suffer. You know what I'm saying? Like I feel the pain, but I heard Tony Robbins say this one time. He never, he's not, he said, like, I had this moment where I realized I would never suffer again. And I feel the same way. I'm never gonna suffer again.

• 1:04:48Lewis Howes?

  Gives himself like 20 minutes or whatever and feels it and he's more like driven. Yeah, yeah.

• 1:04:52Rachel Platten?

  I feel it. Like I am a now a ninja about feeling my feelings. Cause I know I can't trap them. So I will go upstairs. I'll punch pillows. I'll write out in my journal 20 minutes, nonstop. Like everything that I need to say, the worst thing I could say, the worst thing I could feel, the thing I would always suppress, like, I hate my kid, the things that you would never say out loud.

• 1:05:11Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, you let it out.

• 1:05:11Rachel Platten?

  I get them out. I cry. I hold myself.

• 1:05:15Lewis Howes?

  In a healthy container.

• 1:05:16Rachel Platten?

  In a healthy container. Yeah, yeah. Good way to say it. I forgot to think.

• 1:05:18Lewis Howes?

  Don't do it in front of the people that you're pissed with.

• 1:05:20Rachel Platten?

  You've got to be responsible. Like I'll go like scream, I hate you. I want to shoot a bazooka into the world. And none of it stays true. It's just true for that moment, but it doesn't stay true. And Nicole Sacks's work taught me that. My therapist taught me that. Um, like, you know, I learned it from my own experience and, and it has been the most unbelievable thing to learn.

• 1:05:43Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 1:05:43Rachel Platten?

  That it doesn't stay true. It just needs to get out.

• 1:05:47Lewis Howes?

  So you can let it out. So letting out your emotions, accepting yourself.

• 1:05:51Rachel Platten?

  Yeah, accept yourself and then investigate. I mean, it's Tara Brock's rain practice. You're familiar with her work?

• 1:05:57Lewis Howes?

  I think so. Yeah, I've seen her stuff online.

• 1:05:59Rachel Platten?

  The R is recognize. The A is allow. The I is investigate and the N is nurture. And I think it is the most brilliant acronym I've ever, that is, it's life changing for me. Rain. R A I N. And so you recognize, okay, I'm angry right now. Cause how often do we walk around all day being like, not really actually knowing how we feel about a thing. We're just some dull level of not okayness. Once that dull feeling of like, um, disease is there, that's not actually me. And I'm like, I mean, like, that's not actually capital S self. That isn't actually God in you, you know?

• 1:06:35Lewis Howes?

  Something you're experiencing in the moment.

• 1:06:36Rachel Platten?

  That's something I'm experiencing. It's, it's a wave. And so now I'm like, okay, so let's see what's here, Rachy. You're not feeling like yourself and I recognize it. What are you feeling? I put a hand on my heart. I ask myself, I go to the bathroom if I only have two minutes and like. You know, quietly ask, what's here? Okay, fear is here. Why are you afraid? And I feel it. And then, then the A is allow. And I allow it to move through me. And it moves through me like a wave. I cry a lot. I'm a crier, but some people are like to rage. Sometimes I scream. I do what I need to do to get it out of my body. And then investigate. I get quiet. I listen within and I say, where are you? You know, like, like you asked me in the beginning, where was it?

• 1:07:20Rachel Platten?

  It's often in my stomach or my back or my head. And then I ask that part of me, what do you need? What do you need to hear? What's going on? And it'll often just tell me, just love me. Just be with me.

• 1:07:34Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:35Rachel Platten?

  Just let me be here.

• 1:07:36Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 1:07:37Rachel Platten?

  And then N is nurture. And then you give yourself the love and that message of support that you're looking for from a place of support and resource. So like, maybe in the past, there was someone that just loved you so truly, like a grandmother or a spiritual teacher or Jesus or Buddha, whoever you think of. And you embody that and you give yourself the message that you need. And honestly, if you talk about a hack, like I, 20 minutes of that and I am back. I'm clear. I have moved through it and I didn't push anything down.

• 1:08:12Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:08:12Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:13Lewis Howes?

  It sounds like internal family system is a lot in there too, right?

• 1:08:15Rachel Platten?

  Yeah. I like, I have it all mixed up in here.

• 1:08:19Lewis Howes?

  It's good.

• 1:08:19Rachel Platten?

  There's so many brilliant people doing such amazing work right now, including you.

• 1:08:23Lewis Howes?

  Oh, thank you.

• 1:08:23Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:24Lewis Howes?

  Appreciate it. So that's the advice you'd give yourself five years ago.

• 1:08:29Rachel Platten?

  Yeah, the sooner you can be with what is, Rachy, and love yourself just as you are in this moment, the sooner things will start to change.

• 1:08:36Lewis Howes?

  What is the advice?

• 1:08:37Rachel Platten?

  And I would say, turn on your tape recorder.

• 1:08:39Lewis Howes?

  Start recording?

• 1:08:40Rachel Platten?

  Start recording. Like, don't think that those things that you're singing aren't worth anything just because you're depressed.

• 1:08:46Lewis Howes?

  Hmm, that's good.

• 1:08:46Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:47Lewis Howes?

  What is the advice? Your future self would give you now, five years in the future, with all the wisdom and experience that you think you're going to have.

• 1:08:56Rachel Platten?

  Oh, she would love me. She would be so proud of me. She's gonna say to me, Rach, you're doing it. This is it. I ask, because I ask her. I talk to her. And, and she always says, this is it. You're doing it. So I ask, how do I get there? How do I get? And she says, this is do, you're doing it. This is it. This is it. And every time something comes up that's hard, that makes me want to break, or stop, or give up, she tells me, this is not an obstacle in the way. This is the way. This is the way. And I love you. And you're doing such a good job. And keep going.

• 1:09:31Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 1:09:31Rachel Platten?

  Just keep going.

• 1:09:32Lewis Howes?

  That's amazing.

• 1:09:34Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:35Lewis Howes?

  I'm excited for you.

• 1:09:36Rachel Platten?

  I'm really excited.

• 1:09:37Lewis Howes?

  Excited for where you're at, because, I mean, a year ago, you were not in a good place. I remember, again, walking and just the pain you were having in your body and just...

• 1:09:45Rachel Platten?

  It was awful. I was having spasms, right?

• 1:09:47Lewis Howes?

  A lot, in your back, in your hip.

• 1:09:49Rachel Platten?

  Yep. I have no more pain. I can do whatever. Oh, my God.

• 1:09:53Lewis Howes?

  That's incredible.

• 1:09:53Rachel Platten?

  I, I dance every week.

• 1:09:55Lewis Howes?

  That's good.

• 1:09:55Rachel Platten?

  I do whatever I want.

• 1:09:56Lewis Howes?

  That's good.

• 1:09:57Rachel Platten?

  I do some results with my girls and cartwheels, and I play soccer and tennis and ski.

• 1:10:01Lewis Howes?

  You were in a lot of pain before. You were like, do you know masseuse? Do you know anyone?

• 1:10:05Rachel Platten?

  I couldn't move. I couldn't get up off my floor for a couple of weeks.

• 1:10:07Lewis Howes?

  That's crazy.

• 1:10:08Rachel Platten?

  Yeah, I was in a lot of pain.

• 1:10:10Lewis Howes?

  I'm glad you're not in pain anymore.

• 1:10:12Rachel Platten?

  Me too.

• 1:10:12Lewis Howes?

  I'm glad you're feeling peace.

• 1:10:13Rachel Platten?

  Me too.

• 1:10:14Lewis Howes?

  And the album is out. Once we launch this, the album will be out.

• 1:10:19Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:20Lewis Howes?

  What is your, your wish for it?

• 1:10:23Rachel Platten?

  Hmm, well, my wish for it is that it may be used by God to move into all the corners of the world, wherever people need it, that it may reach whoever needs it, that it may bring healing and love and peace, and just be another vehicle out of the dark. You know, it was my way out. So it's now my offering to the world, like, may it be a vehicle for other people who are suffering and, you know, want to feel their feelings. May, may it reach people who feel unseen. May it let people know they're not alone. May it be a comfort. May it be the thing that you listen to over and over to like, feel God. Yeah. And may it just find its home wherever it's supposed to go.

• 1:11:06Lewis Howes?

  That's beautiful. Yeah. I mean, the, the song Girls, if you're a mom, go listen to that right now. I think it's gonna bring you a lot of joy. Or if you have a sister or something like that.

• 1:11:14Rachel Platten?

  Get tissues because you're gonna cry.

• 1:11:15Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it's beautiful. Go listen to that. Again, if you're feeling any type of pain or uncertainty in your life, go listen to Mercy right away. Uh, and if you have bad thoughts, go listen to Bad Thoughts.

• 1:11:26Rachel Platten?

  Anxiety, panic attacks, panic attacks, yeah.

• 1:11:27Lewis Howes?

  Go listen to Bad Thoughts. But listen to the whole thing. It's a beautiful piece of art. So I'm really excited for you. I'm really happy that you were able to create something magical and beautiful from a place of extreme pain and suffering.

• 1:11:38Rachel Platten?

  Thank you.

• 1:11:38Lewis Howes?

  And I hope, even though this is your life, I hope you don't have to suffer that much.

• 1:11:42Rachel Platten?

  No, no, no. I won't ever again. Not like that.

• 1:11:44Lewis Howes?

  You might have pain, but hopefully you don't have to hold on to it.

• 1:11:47Rachel Platten?

  It's life. I'm gonna have pain, but I'm never gonna feel like I felt before.

• 1:11:50Lewis Howes?

  Exactly. That's good. Where should we go to listen to it or, or the best place?

• 1:11:55Rachel Platten?

  Please stream it on your preferred platform, platform, I'm sorry, Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music.

• 1:12:01Lewis Howes?

  It's called I Am Rachel Platten.

• 1:12:03Rachel Platten?

  And go to my website, rachelplatten.com. You can order a vinyl there, a signed copy.

• 1:12:08Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 1:12:08Rachel Platten?

  And see that letter I wrote myself into all of us. And you can join my fan community there. There's a lot of us who are out there seeking comfort and not like feeling like we're not alone and wanting to know that there's others like us who are just seeking, right? And searching for love. And, and I've built this community of incredible, incredible people who are loving on each other and supporting each other. So yeah, come find us.

• 1:12:31Lewis Howes?

  That's great. Are you doing a tour at some point?

• 1:12:33Rachel Platten?

  I am. I'll be touring in 2025.

• 1:12:35Lewis Howes?

  Wow. So they can sign up your newsletter and get that information.

• 1:12:37Rachel Platten?

  On rachelplatten.com, you can sign up for my newsletter and you'll be the first to know and get VIP sales first. First access to tickets.

• 1:12:44Lewis Howes?

  That's pretty cool.

• 1:12:45Rachel Platten?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:45Lewis Howes?

  When's the last time you went on tour?

• 1:12:47Rachel Platten?

  Uh, 2019.

• 1:12:49Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 1:12:49Rachel Platten?

  By the way, I was three months old. Yeah.

• 1:12:50Lewis Howes?

  So it'll be six years since you've been on tour.

• 1:12:52Rachel Platten?

  You know what? Jewel told me to say one thing. I don't want you to be so name dropy, but I want to say something about my tour because she said, Rachel, you have to share this.

• 1:12:58Lewis Howes?

  Say it.

• 1:12:59Rachel Platten?

  Okay. Cause I was talking to my lean in circle, which is Cheryl and Ariana and Jewel and like,

• 1:13:03Lewis Howes?

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:13:04Rachel Platten?

  Yeah. And we're, um, really, it's really cool. And I told them, you know, I'm going back on tour. I might not be on a bus this time because I'm not playing those humongous places that I was playing. But I'm proud and I'm excited. And Jewel said, please talk about that as you do press for the album so that other women and moms know that it is okay to make a choice for your family. It is okay. It is a choice that I made to take time off, to heal, to make my family, to be with my babies. And there is a, there is a sacrifice that came with it. I'm best friends with Andy Grammer and he and I were touring to the same audience, right? But he was, he's a dad. He toured the entire last six years.

• 1:13:41Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, and he kept building his audience.

• 1:13:43Rachel Platten?

  Building his audience. And it can be, it's something that sometimes we joke about and like, I look at it and I'm like, what's wrong with me? Why aren't I there? I am not there because I made a choice. And that choice was beautiful for me at the time, but there was a sacrifice. And I can get back there. It's just gonna take work.

• 1:13:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:57Rachel Platten?

  So I just want other moms to know.

• 1:13:59Lewis Howes?

  And you don't have to get back there.

• 1:14:00Rachel Platten?

  I probably will.

• 1:14:01Lewis Howes?

  Right, but you don't have to tour every year to be successful.

• 1:14:05Rachel Platten?

  No, but I probably will, knowing me, because I'm a hard worker and I feel energy again and I feel ready again.

• 1:14:10Lewis Howes?

  When your kids are older.

• 1:14:12Rachel Platten?

  But it's gonna take time. And like, and that's okay. It's okay to have made a choice. And our, our country, our community, our world right now tells us that it is not okay to make those choices and to not be at the top. You know, but they are essential choices that we have to make. And I accept it and I'm proud of it. And here I am, back out there again. Maybe not on a tour bus this time, maybe playing to a little bit smaller rooms. But hey, like.

• 1:14:35Lewis Howes?

  You're doing it.

• 1:14:35Rachel Platten?

  I'm doing it. And I made my babies and I'm ready again.

• 1:14:38Lewis Howes?

  Let's go.

• 1:14:39Rachel Platten?

  Bro, come on.

• 1:14:42Lewis Howes?

  How else can we be of service and support you, Rachel?

• 1:14:45Rachel Platten?

  Thank you for asking. Please share the music with everyone you know, anyone that you think might need some love right now to know that they're not alone. Anyone that you feel like might be suffering, please share them with it. Please share the music with them. And just come find me online. Come join my community. I am so happy to get to know my fans. We have special gatherings every month and yeah. But yeah, share it with everyone. It comes from word of mouth. You know, it's like.

• 1:15:10Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 1:15:11Rachel Platten?

  I'm an indie artist right now. So like every stream and every recommendation and every TikTok and stream, you make it all help. Yeah, it all matters.

• 1:15:19Lewis Howes?

  Here's what I'm gonna do. For anyone watching or listening right now, I'm gonna buy 10 signed vinyls and send them out to people.

• 1:15:27Rachel Platten?

  Louis.

• 1:15:28Lewis Howes?

  So what you have to do is leave a comment on the YouTube below of your biggest takeaway from this and share that. And then also share, tag, tag a story of you watching this on Instagram. Tag me and tag Rachel and I'll select 10 people who share this out in the first week. We'll send it out to 10 people. So, and if you don't get one, then just go to rachelplattin.com and buy yourself.

• 1:15:54Rachel Platten?

  No, but I'll sign them special for them.

• 1:15:55Lewis Howes?

  There you go.

• 1:15:55Rachel Platten?

  Like I'll individualize it.

• 1:15:57Lewis Howes?

  Special one.

• 1:15:57Rachel Platten?

  I'll individualize it.

• 1:15:58Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, well, I'll go over to the studio across the street. We'll sign it. I'll sign it too. You want me to?

• 1:16:03Rachel Platten?

  Yeah. Yep. Rachel and I will sign.

• 1:16:05Lewis Howes?

  There will be 10 special ones. So we'll make that happen. Rachel, I acknowledge you for the journey you've been on. Again, I've seen behind the scenes of stuff. A lot of people don't get to see that. I acknowledge you for opening up here and sharing more of what you've been going through the last five years. I'll never know what it's like to be a mother of two and experience the joy and the pain and the suffering and the sadness and the no, no sleepless nights and, and try to be relevant and try to make music. Like I'll never know what that feels like. And I acknowledge you for feeling it all and experiencing it all, for making the sacrifices to live your dream to be a mother and to also come back and create the art and the music that can help you and others as well. So I acknowledge

• 1:16:48Lewis Howes?

  you for all of it, my friend. I love you. I'm grateful for you. And I can't wait to do our, our walks soon. When you get back from all this three months of madness, we'll do more walks together.

• 1:16:58Rachel Platten?

  Thank you so much.

• 1:17:00Lewis Howes?

  One final question I've asked you before, but I'm curious what your definition is now with some perspective. What's your definition of greatness?

• 1:17:08Rachel Platten?

  It's kind of beautiful to answer this almost 10 years later. First of all, that made me cry. Thank you so much.

• 1:17:14Lewis Howes?

  You're welcome.

• 1:17:16Rachel Platten?

  I think just being able to love yourself right now is my answer. I think being able to truly and deeply and radically love yourself and accept yourself for all of you is greatness. Because we've both seen the achievement. It's not it. It's not it. It's like being of service and loving yourself.

• 1:17:40Lewis Howes?

  There you go. Appreciate you.

• 1:17:41Rachel Platten?

  I appreciate you so much.

• 1:17:43Lewis Howes?

  Amazing. Love you too.

• 1:17:44Rachel Platten?

  Thank you.

• 1:17:44Lewis Howes?

  Amazing. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well. Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review. I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward. And I want to remind you, if no one has told you lately, that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter.

• 1:18:29Lewis Howes?

  And now it's time to go out there and do something great.